Yesterday i had the pleasure of taking images at a first aid class for the under 14's. I had been chatting with Louise from Early First Aid Kent for some time after Faye Burdett sadly died and its great to know that meningitis is included in her classes. The one hour class concentrated on CPR, Choking, Calling & getting help, Bleeds and Burns.

Louise was great at interacting with the kids and every one of them were paying attention and taking in what she had to say. The children didn't hold back on getting involved with practising on the dummys, they were interacting with some great answers to Louise's questions, i was truly impressed at these kids, some of whom were just 6 years old !

Louise runs classes all over Kent and if you think its something you would be interested in doing then please do not hesitate to get in touch with her.

www.earlyfirstaid.com / 07784 973263 / louise@earlyfirstaid.com

Her next class is on 25th March in Maidstone for Parents, Grandparents and Carers. Price is £20pp for a 2 hour class.

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all !! Did you have a lovely Christmas & New Year ?

Photography is like most things nowadays, forever evolving and always something new going on.

I have decided to try things a little differently with my pricing as not everyone wants a set package and to be told what they can have with their package, so .....here's how it is now ....

Unless otherwise stated, when you book me to capture your special moments, you will now pay a session fee, this is for my time, experience and talent. You will then have various image package deals or individual products to choose to buy on top of the original session fee.

The session fee is £55, once you have had your session, £15 print credit will be added to your online gallery.

If you have any questions or enquiries, please do pop me a message so we can discuss things further.

You charge WHAT?! I hear this often BUT what people don’t understand is being a photographer for me, is not a hobby, it's my job. It has the usual business costs and takes up a lot of my time.

Customers may only spend up to a few hours with me during a session but for me, the work doesn't stop when I put the camera away. When you hire a photographer, you’re not only paying for their time during the session, you also pay for their time after in post processing (and trust me, it's a lot of time!).

I spend hours and hours editing each image individually ensuring each and every one is perfect! After all, they are memories you will see every day; I hope they will be the most precious memories of your family! I want every customer to be genuinely happy every time they look at their images.

Anyone can pick up a camera, put it on auto, take a picture and put all unedited images on a disk BUT it’s also what happens after (in post processing) that is just as important as taking the picture! You don't pay a professional to simply point and shoot, you pay a professional to make your images perfect!

For the past 10 years on and off, i have been a viewer of the American show "Kate plus 8". Kate had twin girls and then became pregnant with sextuplets consisting of 3 girls and 3 boys.The sextuplets were born around the same time as my own twin girls and i found the programme very insightful when it came to the tips and tricks in my own house.

Last night i was catching up on some recorded shows when Kate said something that really made me sit up and listen. On a trip to New York with the kids, she made a comment about taking photos and said the following statement .....

"I am hell bent on getting that photo, its memories. Im going to be old some day, my kids will be grown, i think that, every time i think that. I get out the camera and think, 'oh its so much hassle to get a picture' but the truth is, this is the only tangible memories i will have one day."

With the world being in "the digital age", everyone wants images ready to share on facebook, or to email them to friends and family but does that mean we will never have a printed photograph to look at again ?! I dont think so. People are still printing but the sad fact is they want to do it as cheap as possible and my fear is that the photograph will physically be there but the actual image wont last a life time like photos from what we call "the olden days".

I love to see my work printed and it makes me even more happy when i see them printed using my professional supplier. These are our memories, they will last alot longer than we ever will so why are we depriving our future family members of the chance to know us and see what we looked like. Its definitely made me think about printing more of my own personal images ......

You know that moment when you find the perfect GP (General Practitioner) that really gets you as a patient and is genuinely sympathetic to you and your needs, well this is what i found in 2005/6 ish. I felt that i finally had someone that i trusted with the care of my medical needs, he had all the time in the world for me and i thank him for that eternally.

Unfortunately in 2011 he became ill, had some time off and then returned for a very short time before he died in 2012, this week is the 4th anniversary. I will never find another doctor as not only nice and caring but understanding too.

In 2015 his family help a charity ball in his name to raise money for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately i left it too late to get myself any tickets but i was able to help the cause by donating gift vouchers for Charlene Reed Photography. I gave 2 vouchers in and i was very honoured to get a thank you card with an update of how it went and how much was raised.

I'd had a thought in my mind for a while and i started to look at changing a while ago too but today, ive done it, ive finally done it !

IVE MOVED TO ONLINE CONTRACTS !!

In a world where i complain about TOO MUCH PACKAGING, and back in my teen years, i was really into "saving the planet" and "save the tree's" and as much as i would do what i could back then, it just fizzled out, i became lazy i guess and i wouldn't think twice about just throwing a piece of paper away due to having 1 spelling mistake on it.

We have one world and we need to look after it. Lets hope this concept works ok !

If there is anything worse for a wedding photographer, its this ........ and Thomas Stewart blogs about it perfectly in this viral post ....... Enjoy :)

Right, I've had enough. I want to talk to you all about guests using mobile phones / cameras at weddings. I want to plead with you, and I'm going to make this very simple: brides and grooms, please have a completely unplugged wedding ceremony.

Look at this photo. This groom had to lean out past the aisle just to see his bride approaching. Why? Because guests with their phones were in the aisle and in his way.

This sucks. And i'm not blaming these guests in particular; I actually take a large amount of responsibility for this occurring. In the past I should have been more specific with my clients in explaining to them why guests should be told no photos. Well, from now on, I'm going to make a pretty big deal about it.

If you're planning a wedding, please consider these points:

1. Guests with phones, iPads and cameras get right in your photographer's way. They have no idea how to stay out of our way. They often ruin many of our shots. They will make our photos worse. You're paying a photographer quite a bit of money; that means you want great photos. We cannot do our best work with people getting in our way.

2. These same guests will get in YOUR way. You will miss moments of your own wedding day because there'll be an iPad in the way. You will miss seeing your partner's face in the aisle.

3. The guests' photos are usually crap. I'm sorry, but it is true. You can't take great photos with your camera phone by leaning into the aisle of a dark church to photograph a moving subject. Hell, even lots of professionals have trouble with this.

And finally, the most important point:

4. Imagine you're in the middle of your wedding ceremony. You're elated. You decide to take a quick glance towards your guests as you're sure they're sharing these happy moments with you, possibly even shedding a tear of their own. What do you see? NO FACES AT ALL AS THEY ARE ALL HIDDEN BEHIND PHONES AND CAMERAS! I highly doubt this is the way you want to remember your wedding ceremony.

In your invites, tell everyone you're having an unplugged ceremony: no technology, please, Write it on a chalkboard which guests can see as they arrive on the day. Tell your celebrant / minister / priest to tell the guests at the start of the ceremony. HIRE A PLANE TO WRITE IT IN THE SKY!

And guests, you've been invited to this wedding to share and celebrate the love that two people feel for each other. They didn't invite you along to take photographs that they probably won't really look at anyway. They want you there with them in heart and soul, and they want to see your tear-filled eyes as you form part of their wedding ceremony. You are witnesses to their marriage, so for goodness sake, watch them with your eyes and your minds, not your phones.

So guests please, for my sake, and for sake of the two people getting married, leave your cameras at home and put your phones / ipads away grin emoticon

That time of year is upon us yet again .... the dreaded C word ...... CHRISTMAS !

I usually try and take part in as many christmas fairs and craft things as possible to get my name out there over the busy Christmas time BUT this time i have decided to hold my own event !!

With living where i do, i see it as a great opportunity to get out to the local estate with various stalls that are affordable for the clientele. There is nothing worse than knowing that christmas is just around the corner and not having a clue with what to get the kiddies or friends and family, all these small businesses are something exciting with one of a kind items to offer you.

If youre in the area, please do pop down - it will be lovely to see you, rock up - grab a hot chocolate and browse !

From when i was younger and had my school photo's, somewhat 20 odd years ago, school photographers have come on leaps and bounds since then and now we see a clean cut modern school photo of our children BUT they are still the bog standard poses and in my opinion, boring !

Good Lord, i cant believe i am sharing this with you ..... This is my school photo at approximately 9 years old.

Why shouldn't school photos be fun and more about what the child or children likes about school ?! This is what i aim to achieve and its nice to hear great responses from my clients that book. This is the second year of my school mini sessions and each year proves better than the last.

Thank you for all those that booked and heres a few examples from 2015.

Welcome to the New & Improved website.

With 2015 being Charlene Reed Photography's 5th birthday year, i felt that its time to treat the business to a new, posh and more grown up looking website. There's still a way to go for it to be perfect and finished but i hope you like what you see so far.

The new website also welcomes a new feature ...... Blogging ! Having not done Blogs before, its both an exciting and scary concept but i hope you enjoy them and hopefully it will be a great way to keep my customers up to date with my current affairs. Your feedback is most welcome on them :)